"You must take in all that is living, all that can feel and feel it yourself. You must look at the earthly world through the eyes of the living to truly see the beauty in both the miraculous pulses of life and the serene inevitability and stillness of death."
MTH 16
CHAPTER ONE
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Where do the young souls go when they die? Souls that are not yet ready for heaven or hell? The souls with more of a purpose than to be on the Earth for such a brief time, living such a short lived timeline?
Living such a life, only to meet death quickly would be pointless, yes?
The souls that live such lives, only to be quickly ended have a purpose still, and they only have a purpose in The Mortem Tier. They become Death, if life is not friendly, living until they have served long enough.
"Time is not friendly. Not to death. Not to humans. Yet it is all we have. It comes in abundance, in plenty, more to others, less to some, and it is indescribably easy to waste.
Life is temporary, and death is inevitable. When we as humans reach a halfway mark in our time, we will not know until the end. One may have yet to reach their halfway mark with life, and one may have already ran long past theirs, yet they waste their time still, as if they know when death approaches. Time is not here for one to waste pointlessly with minor inconveniences and sadness. What one may think important, will not matter to death when he comes."
-MB18
"Why can't I just simply walk as a Mortem without being caught?"
Elenora asked her reflection at her dresser as she slipped another pin in her wavy silk hair. Once she slipped it in, she froze and stared intensely at herself, her hands in mid stride. Quickly, she looked down to a small box and retrieved another pin. One in her mouth, and one in her fingertips, Elenora brought her hands to her hair.
"If one were willingly coming to their side, then what trouble is it to them? If anything it's a benefit!"
She stood up quickly, the chair making a piercing noise as the legs scraped against the polished wooden floor. Madam slowly turned, brushed herself off, and headed out of her bedroom. The woman's short heels barely tapped the ground as she walked.
Clouds darkened the outside quickly, unwilling to wait for anyone, impatient. She was determined to get out of the house to meet Ann before the snowstorm was due. When she reached the front door, Elenora opened it and a blast of cold air and snow rushed into her small house like a tidal wave. The outside was chilled and it fled to the warmth of the house's interior. The woman inhaled, and a small frosty cloud slipped from her lips as she exhaled, and she headed out for the day.
The sky was as grey and flat as a cold sidewalk, and the sun hid behind the thick sky like a drippy, raw clam. Madam Elenora Bourdeleau. Unlike the day in all it's ways. She was very lucky, yet, unlucky.
Like all perks in life, there will always be it's dismal equal following close behind.
She always hated her name. Elenora. She always thought that it was the most dull, flat, boring name a person could bestow upon another, and to her luck, that's the name that she was unfortunately labeled with. She was cursed with it, and there was not a thing she could do about it. Elenora was very unconfident in herself and would always look down at her feet when she took her small strides down the city streets. She refused to look up to where she was going and often found herself to be rather clumsy. She couldn't accept that she was as ugly as a freshly bloomed rose.
To herself, of course, she was as boring and plain as a pair of old scuffed up boots, laces chewed up and caked with mud. When she saw herself in the mirror everyday, the woman thought the same thing of herself every time,but because she was so used to seeing her own face, she never came to think of what she would look like to someone who hasn't. Indeed, she was very beautiful.
Even though she didn't think it, she was the most comely in all of the Hominum Tier.
No matter how kind, sweet, or soft spoken she was, she could never get away from the dreaded fact that she had no family, and this irked her. She never had one. Her entire family was killed by the Mortem Tier long ago. The humans had previously raided one of their holds, and in return, the Mortems did the same to them. Because of the lifelong brawl of the two Tiers, the Mortem Tier had taken many families from their foes, yet she held no resentment.
With men, they would make attempts to manipulate and bit by bit, convert them into a Mortem. Women were often used for their reproduction and if they were suitable, they were used to carry on the blood of the Head. This was often the case, and Mortem women almost rarely carried the blood. Children, because of their innocent souls, there was nothing to push past in turning them into a Mortem. They were like simply finding a dollar bill on the street and claiming yourself a dollar richer.
When the Mortem Tier raided years ago, many families were abducted and children went missing.
Her sister managed to escape shortly after Elenora's birth, and once the family ceased, she would rarely visit her baby sister. Elenora was taken and raised by a family friend, and barely got by with selling bread at the local bakery and occasionally working at their library.
You could tell it in her eyes, her face did not have to reveal such emotions of how unhappy she really was.. Her eyes were beautiful. Blue, but staring deeper, the life looked lost in them. Just like she was now. It was not only her family that made her so upset, it was where she was from. Deep down, the woman knew that many reasons why the Hominum Tier was so weak and feeble, was because they
were mere humans. They had no way of constantly reproducing in many ways like Mortems. They couldn't abduct a Mortem woman or even a infant from such because even a mere child could kill them, and even if they did and succeeded, there would be no way of transforming one into a human, only because the beings of that Tier were far from human.
Elenora knew that her Tier was weak and falling fast. They were losing people left and right, yet their Tier Head kept picking fights like he was some sort of sempiternal god that couldn't die. Some humans even willingly live in the enemy Tier as a fugitive.
Departing from the house, laughter of children running by chasing a small rubber ball and the sound of snow crunching under her feet that made her almost feel normal as to what she was going to do. She looked as if she were just another bystander going along with her business.
One could now see the soft flurries collecting in her hair and overcoat as she made her way down the street and turned the corner to the library bridge. She clutched her coat in warmth and proceeded down the cold soggy bridge. Elenora exhibited her beautiful rare smile as a couple of children ran by in a fit of laughter again.
Continuing her way and up to the library door, she grasped the cold handle, not hesitating for a second to enter. She loved the library. It was a safe haven. Instantly, she shut the door, people drawing eyes to her then back to their books.
She exhaled and made her way out of the doorways path, wandering further into the library and into the vast collection of books.
It was amazing. Hominum books and novels climbed the walls to the ceiling in a vast array. Dusty and aging, but fascinating none the less. She ran her fingers down the old spines and when one caught her eye, she paused and slid it from its small spot. This caused the books to fall inward slightly.
Elenora opened it and read the first caption.
"Dedicated to my beloved Lillian. I envy you because you are now free" it read.
A turn of the page, beginning to read. The girl soon enough got lost in the pages and it would be hard to fish her back in. So lost, she had forgotten what she was there for. Until what she was there for came to her.
"What is it that you're reading, Elenora?"
The touch of a hand on her shoulder immediately snapped her out of her reading and it made her jump and her heart skip. She almost yelped , but she caught herself and put her hand on her chest where her heart would lay.
"Oh, my... You nearly scared me half to death!"
Then she looked up at her friend still slightly in a huff.
"Now that wasn't me." The librarian said. "You're always so jumpy!"
Elenora smiled to herself in agreement, but getting down to business, she gazed around. The librarian noticed, and remarked "Doesn't look like right now would be a convenient time... What do you think?"
She looked around once more to reassure herself.
"I don't think so... I'm sorry... Could I come back tonight, then?"
The librarian, Ann, shook her head, and affixed her spectacles briefly before replying.
"No.. Today we close early because of the snowstorm due... "
Elenora looked slightly upset.
"Well, say, Elenora... Why don't you meet me near the coffee house later tonight before it closes, yes?... I'll...give it to you then... What do you say, is that a deal?" Ann proposed, leaning in a little close.
Elenora gave that smile again.
"That's a deal!" She agreed joyously.
Her friend grinned. "Alright... Would around six o'clock be too inconvenient for you?"
"Not at all!"
She began walking to the door. "See you then, Madam!"
The burst of cold air shook her as she longed to go back inside to the warmth and serene silence but knew that she had to get back to her house. Quickly in excitement, she walked back to her small house, excited to meet Ann, the librarian, at the coffee house later that night.
